Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is an aggressive neuroendocrine tumour of the skin with growing incidence. To better understand the biology of this malignant disease, immortalized cell lines are used in research for in vitro experiments. However, a comprehensive quantitative proteome analysis of these cell lines has not been performed so far. Stable isotope labelling by amino acids in cell culture (SILAC) was applied to six MCC cell lines (BroLi, MKL-1, MKL-2, PeTa, WaGa, and MCC13). Following tryptic digest of labelled proteins, peptides were analysed by mass spectrometry. Proteome patterns of MCC cell lines were compared to the proteome profile of an immortalized keratinocyte cell line (HaCaT). In total, 142 proteins were upregulated and 43 proteins were downregulated. Altered proteins included mitoferrin-1, histone H2A type 1-H, protein-arginine deiminase type-6, heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoproteins A2/B1, protein SLX4IP and clathrin light chain B. Furthermore, several proteins of the histone family and their variants were highly abundant in MCC cell lines. The results of this study present a new protein map of MCC and provide deeper insights in the biology of MCC. Data are available via ProteomeXchange with identifier PXD008181.

中文翻译：

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使用 SILAC 对默克尔细胞癌细胞系进行定量蛋白质组分析

默克尔细胞癌（MCC）是一种侵袭性皮肤神经内分泌肿瘤，发病率不断上升。为了更好地了解这种恶性疾病的生物学原理，永生化细胞系被用于体外实验研究。然而，迄今为止尚未对这些细胞系进行全面的定量蛋白质组分析。细胞培养物中氨基酸的稳定同位素标记 (SILAC) 应用于六种 MCC 细胞系（BroLi、MKL-1、MKL-2、PeTa、WaGa 和 MCC13）。标记蛋白质经胰蛋白酶消化后，通过质谱分析肽。将 MCC 细胞系的蛋白质组模式与永生化角质形成细胞系 (HaCaT) 的蛋白质组谱进行比较。总共有 142 个蛋白质上调，43 个蛋白质下调。改变的蛋白质包括线粒体铁蛋白-1、组蛋白 H2A 1-H 型、蛋白质-精氨酸脱亚胺酶 6 型、异质核核糖核蛋白 A2/B1、蛋白质 SLX4IP 和网格蛋白轻链 B。此外，组蛋白家族的几种蛋白质及其变体高度大量存在于 MC​​C 细胞系中。这项研究的结果提出了 MCC 的新蛋白质图谱，并为 MCC 的生物学提供了更深入的见解。数据可通过 ProteomeXchange 获得，标识符为 PXD008181。